


Your Heart Beating Next to Mine

by Chibifukurou



Category: The Losers (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-03
Updated: 2014-02-03
Packaged: 2018-01-11 00:27:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1166413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chibifukurou/pseuds/Chibifukurou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Jensen first feels three hearts beating next to his, he's sitting in the passenger seat of Wade's truck, contemplating the most recent hand shaped bruises on his arm. A dented up tow truck just pulled into the gas station parking lot. They're parked at the tank furthest from Jensen and he can only see the top of a cowboy hat as the driver gets out to fill up the tank.</p><p>It feels like his whole world has shifted. He's like a fucking deer standing in the middle of the road with an eighteen-wheeler barreling towards him at eighty miles an hour. He can't do anything but curl up and try to breath around the pain of suddenly feeling four heartbeats instead of one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Like an Eighteen wheeler to the Chest

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AngeNoir](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngeNoir/gifts).



> A huge thank you to Ivorygates for helping me brainstorm and betaing the story for me!

When Jensen first feels three hearts beating next to his, he's sitting in the passenger seat of Wade's truck, contemplating the most recent hand shaped bruises on his arm. A dented up tow truck just pulled into the gas station parking lot. They're parked at the tank furthest from Jensen and he can only see the top of a cowboy hat as the driver gets out to fill up the tank.

It feels like his whole world has shifted. He's like a fucking deer standing in the middle of the road with an eighteen-wheeler barreling towards him at eighty miles an hour. He can't do anything but curl up and try to breathe around the pain of suddenly feeling four heartbeats instead of one. He doesn't realize the tow truck has started driving away, until he feels a pull like a string wrapped around his heart and trying to drag it out. He doesn't have a clue who was in the truck. 

He doesn't have the name of the tow company or a license plate. Trying to find his soul-mates is a reckless thought. He's got a good life where he is. He and Wade have been together for three years, he shouldn't still be trying to find an excuse to move on. 

He's always figured that he didn't have anywhere left to go. Wade swore they were soul-mates and Jensen was just too much of a screw up to feel anybody else's heartbeat. Now the very idea of Wade being his soul-mate seems like sacrilege. He thinks about the creased and worn picture of Jenny and her daughter Lizzy that he has stuffed into his pocket. He hasn't seen them in two years. Not since Jenny had tried to get him away from Wade. She and Wade never got along. She tried to get him to wait, but he'd been young and Wade had seemed like everything he wanted.

By the time he figured out that he should have listened to Jenny he'd lost everything that came close to autonomy. He's still trying to convince himself that it's for the best. He thinks he is close to finally silencing the little kernel of anger that makes him want to scream at Wade. If he's smart he'll ignore the feeling of his soul-mates' heartbeats. Once the tow truck far enough away the feeling of having his heart pulled out of his chest will fade. There's no telling where he'll end up if he goes looking for them.

He looks through the window of the gas station, to where Wade is leaning against the counter casually flirting with the attendant. He's so busy trying to decide if Wade is going to take her into the bathroom for a quick fuck that it takes him a minute to realize he's rubbing at his chest trying to calm down the staccato beat of his heart. Then, praying to whatever God brought him to this backwater patch of a town, he slides across the bench, into the driver's seat.

Wade left the keys in the ignition and the heat running when he went into the convenience store. Jensen shifts the car into drive and pushes the gas pedal to the floor. The truck jerks forward with a squeal and Jensen barely has time to turn onto the main road before there is a slam and Wade starts screaming at him to stop or else.

Jensen doesn't listen and just concentrates on getting as far away as he can. He's got a full tank of gas, a half-full thermos of coffee in the foot well, and a rucksack of clothes in the back. He'll be okay even if he doesn't have any money or identification.

He keeps telling himself that as he drives south. By the time the truck runs out of gas and he abandons it on the side of the road, the heartbeats grow from a faint patter to a steady series of thumps. He hopes that means he's close.

Outside the truck, the air tastes of snow and wet asphalt. A bowl of gray sky stretches unbroken over Jensen's head. The road stretches out until it reaches the horizon and meets the sky. Fields picked clean and left fallow for the winter spread out on either side.

Jensen pushes back the urge to dig through the bag and pull out the thermos to shake it and reassure himself that there is still a little coffee left. If he gets it out, he doesn’t know if he'll have the self-control to put it back without taking a sip.

He can't afford to do that right now. He's in the middle of nowhere with no way to tell how far to the next town. The sheer openness of the road and the plowed under fields is frightening. He'd be terrified if he couldn't feel the pull in his chest, guiding him like the point of a compass. 

Another hour of walking and he gives in and takes a sip of lukewarm coffee from the thermos. The temperature is dipping. He still can't see the sun, but he guesses that it's going down. 

He's wondering if he's going to die, when the pain in his chest stops. Rooting him to the road like he's been glued there. If he doesn't have the pull to guide him, how is he going to find his soul-mates. Approaching panic at lightning speed he starts turning in circles trying to figure out what's gone wrong. It takes him a few tries before sees that he's dead even with a faint line of mud-filed wheel-tracks leading away from the road and out of sight.

A mailbox is barely staying vertical next to what he thinks might be a driveway. It might have had numbers on it once, but now there are only shadows where the paint has peeled off leaving a shadow behind. 42. 

It seems like a random number for a farm in the middle of nowhere. That doesn't stop Jensen from whispering: “The Answer to … Life, the Universe, and Everything” as he steps off the asphalt and onto the ice covered dirt road.

His feet try to slip out from under him until he digs his toes down through the crust of frost and into the mud beneath. He makes sure to plant his feet more firmly after that. Jensen moves forward in a staggering shuffle. When he dares to look behind him, he can see dirty holes marring the frost wherever he's broken through the ice and dirty water has risen up to fill the divots left behind.

Hopefully, Wade won't come by this place until after the next frost covers up his tracks. Otherwise, Jensen might as well draw a map to his soul-mates. 

There isn't anything Jensen can do about the tracks so he turns to face forward and keeps moving. His hands burn with cold. His fingers are stiff around the strap of his pack. The fabric of his gloves is now covered in a dusting of ice crystals formed like snowflakes.

Finally, he passes by the empty fields and into a copse of bushes and trees. The wind is gentler here. He dares to stop and huddle around his hands. Jensen's body heat isn't much, but it is enough to loosen the ice crystals. His hands are still clumsy as he opens the top of his sack and pulls out the thermos. With the insulation of his clothes and the thermos itself the coffee inside hasn't frozen.

It is still icy, but he forces himself to take a few sips. It sits like a rock in his chest. He shoves it back into the sack, making sure that it is surrounded on all sides. Then he slides the pack back onto his shoulder. 

The woods get thicker the further he goes. Until he can only see a few yards ahead, until the next turn in the road. He can see the road clearly now at least. The ice is kept off by the trees and he doesn't have to fight for every step.

Jensen is so busy being glad for the ease of movement that when the thin dirt trail widens he doesn't notice. Not until he's a few feet past the last of the trees.

The increase of wind startles him enough to look up. In front of him is a quaint two-story farm house. It's sided in graying whitewashed boards, and faded green shutters are hung beside each window. It looks like the Kent family farm from the Superman comics he read as a kid.

There are three cars tucked up against the far side of the house. There is a beat up red pick-up that looks like it came off the assembly line a century before, a teal Bug that shows obvious signs of being refurbished in the last couple years, and the third vehicle is up on blocks and covered by a blue tarp. They are all sheltered by a haphazard carport that, given the shape of the roof, looks like it might have been a barn at some point.

Now that he finds himself faced with meeting his soul-mates, Jensen wavers. The house looks perfectly settled and stately. He can't imagine that his soul-mates are looking to take in a bedraggled fugitive with nothing to his name but a bag of second-hand clothes.

He can't turn back now though. The sky has darkened from a milky gray to something that resembles thunderheads. The sun will be fully set soon, and he won't make it to the road if he turns around.

That should make his decision easier. He finds himself dreaming about how he would have acted if he came here before Wade found him. He'd have strode up the steps and onto the porch like he had a right to be there. Maybe Jenny and Lizzy would have driven out with him, or maybe he'd have come alone and just brought a camera full of pictures. Everything would have been different.

The fantasy blows away when a flurry of snow blows past. He's not going to be able to count on his past naiveté to take him up those steps. So he's just going to have to buckle down and get on with it.

The boards creak beneath Jensen's feet as he climbs the three steps to the wide, open porch that stretches across the entire bottom floor of the house. There is a mat in front of the door, it has cat paw prints around the edges and enthuses that one should 'wipe their paws' before entering. A hedgehog with bristled boot-scraper fur glares at him balefully.

He stares back at the hedgehog for a minute, trying to process the sheer kitschiness of it. The whole place feels like it belongs in a comic book or an old fifties sitcom. It certainly doesn't feel like it belongs in the same world he and Wade have been living in the last three years.


	2. Not the Life you're looking For

Making himself focus, Jensen brings his gloved fist up to the door and taps carefully on one of the glass panes that make up the top half of the door. There is a curtain blocking his view of the inside, but it still feels ridiculously trusting to have glass in the door. He's used to city apartments with three locks on every solid metal door; at least one the locks fixed so that it can only be fastened from the inside. 

He doesn't hear anything on the other side of the door at first. He looks over at the cars, and tries to figure out if there is space for another vehicle. Jensen thinks heart-beats in his chest are telling him that his soul-mates are inside, but maybe that is just wishful thinking. 

Then he hears a soft creak. Out of the corner of his eye he catches the slightest bit of movement at one of the windows. Suddenly he's overcome with fear. What if they didn't feel him coming? What if Wade is right and he's too screwed up to have proper soul-mates?

He won't get far before dark, but he doesn't want to die on the path. Even if they don't recognize him as their soul-mate, he's not going to make whoever is behind the door look after his dead body.

He could go now, but it seems a shame to come this far and never see them. So he waits until he hears the creak of old wood floors on the other side of the door, and the snick of the lock turning.

The door swings open. The woman on the other side is beautiful. Her skin is a soft bronze that glows in the yellow light that spills out of the house. Black curls create a halo around her head. One of the heartbeats in Jensen's chest catches and flutters. He's still not deeply connected enough to know which of the heartbeats is hers.

The catch is enough to make him brave, and keep him on the porch. He can't be sure, but he hopes that it means she can feel him as well. "Hello, I'm Jacob Jensen. I think you might be expecting me?"

The woman goes pale, her eyes widen until he can see the whites all around her irises. She backs away a step. Jensen can't tell if this is supposed to be an opening for him to come into the house, so he stays still.

"Cougar, Pooch. I need you to get out here." The woman turns her head to yell to the others in the house. The position reveals a delicate stretch of neck. Jensen would blush if he wasn't so cold.

He doesn't remember ever feeling such an instantaneous feeling of 'want'. He's taken the occasional lover in the past, but it had always been casual.

The feeling of heat building in his chest only grows when two men come through the door he can see over her shoulder. They are both as beautiful as her. One is tall, with wide shoulders and smiling eyes. His head is shaved smooth so that it glows in the soft light. The other is slim with black hair pulled back in a tail at the base of his neck. He's a head shorter than Jensen. He moves like somebody dangerous; quiet footed as a cat stalking prey. 

All together they make Jensen feel big and lumbering. He's always been too klutzy and easily distracted. It feels even worse with the three of them so focused on him. It doesn't help that he's in a worn coat with the hood pulled up over his head and two days worth of stubble on his chin. He's so busy concentrating on the sinking feeling of not being good enough that he almost misses when the other two heartbeats stutter. 

"Jolene, is that?" the bigger man asks.

"I think so. It feels right, Pooch." Jolene replies.

The smaller man, Cougar, nods. Then he moves forward and, grabbing the arm of Jensen's coat, drags him inside. Jolene closes the door behind him. The heat makes Jensen's wind-burnt skin feel like it’s stretched to tight across his cheeks. That doesn't seem important for long though. 

Cougar still hasn't said anything, but that doesn't keep him from being the most straightforward of Jensen's new soul-mates. He barely pauses before yanking off Jensen's soaked gloves and pulling the pack off his shoulder.

Then he shoves Jensen towards the coat-rack nailed to the wall by the door. Cougar is giving Jensen's coat a dirty look, like it personally offends him, so it doesn't take a lot of guesswork to figure out what he expects Jensen to do.

Jensen goes along with it. The snow that dusts his shoulders is starting to melt. It seems rude to drip all over the kitchen floor. He hangs the coat up and toes off his sneakers and shoves them onto the rubber mat that houses three pairs of snow-boots. Sitting next to the carefully cared-for boots, his sneakers look even sadder.

Without his coat or shoes the house doesn't feel so blazing hot. The skin on his face still feels hot and stretched, but the rest of him has no problem starting to shiver. He clenches his teeth together and tries to act like he's not completely hopeless. It doesn't seem to work. When he turns back to face Jolene and Pooch, she springs into action. "Pooch go get a spare set of clothes and a blanket out of the bedroom. Cougar, go fix a cup of hot chocolate." 

The two men don't hesitate to follow her direction. Pooch heads back through the door that leads to the rest of the house, while Cougar moves to dig through a cabinet near where a microwave is perched on the counter.

Jensen only has a second to take it all in before Jolene turns her attention on him. Her eyes are sharp as she scans him over. "You look like you could use a couple good meals. Are you hurt anywhere I should check? I didn't hear a car pulling up the drive? Did you walk?"

Jensen opens his mouth to reply, but all the questions feel overwhelming. Wade never asked questions. He always assumed that he knew everything there was to know about Jensen. What if he says the wrong thing to Jolene and Cougar or Pooch got mad. 

He should say something. Instead he panics and keeps shooting looks at Cougar's back. His heart is pounding in his chest. What if Jolene can feel it and thinks he's hiding something? Jensen's mouth snaps shut. He doesn't know what to do.

Cougar steps away from the cupboard and comes to stand next to Jolene. "Can't find the cocoa mix. I'll take him."

He and Jolene share a look. Then she nods and walks away. Cougar moves slow. Even if Jensen wasn't hyper-aware of every move Cougar makes it would be easy to tell that he's reaching for Jensen's arm. "Bathroom's this way. Pooch will bring clothes." 

The bathroom he leads Jensen to is a small half-bath tucked up under the stairs. Jensen has to duck a little to get through the tilted door, but once he's closed up inside he feels a little better. It's painted a shell pink. A round mirror hangs on the wall just over a vanity that stretches the width of the room, and still only has a few inches on either side of the sink.

He takes a piss and washes his hands, stripping out of his jeans as he goes. Now that he's warming up, he can feel how clammy they are. He leaves his boxers on. Closing the toilet lid, he uses it as a seat while he waits for Pooch to come with the promised clothes.

The position leaves him looking in the mirror. To distract himself, he takes his time opening the button at the top of his thermal shirt and yanking it over his head. Even he can't make the process take more than a minute. Which leaves him back where he started, staring at himself in the mirror.

With his pale hair, the stubble on his chin looks out of place and patchy. He considers cracking the door open and seeing if Cougar is still lurking in the hallway. If he is, Jensen can ask to borrow a razor. He considers the door for a minute. It would only be open for a second and they wouldn't be able to see anything but his naked shoulders. 

He hunches down and stares at the floor so he won't have to keep looking at the mirror. Asking for a razor might distract them from whatever plans they have. Besides, Cougar has probably gone back to be with Jolene in the kitchen. 

There is a tap on the door. Then Pooch says, "I'm gonna leave the clothes next to the door okay? You can leave the wet clothes in there. It's not like they'll hurt the tile." 

Jensen strains to listen to the floor's soft creaks as Pooch heads down the hall. It's not like he thinks that Pooch is lying in wait. It's just habit. He still doesn't sit up or let himself make any noise until he hears the soft mumble of Pooch talking to Jolene. He still can't hear Cougar, but even having just met the man he doesn't expect to. 

He waits another few seconds to be sure. Then he cracks the door and peeks out. There is a pair of cargo pants and a maroon sweatshirt faded from years of washing. Folded between the two he can just make out the corner of bright yellow boxers covered in paw prints. What draws most of his attention is the safety razor and can of shaving cream resting on top of the stack.

It's stupid, but the sight eases some of the tension from his chest. He knows that the rumors about soul-mates being able to read each other's minds are just rumors. He still remembers his grandparents, though. They might not have been able to read each other's minds, but they had a sixth sense about what their mate needed.

It might just be common courtesy or maybe Jolene likes her men clean shaven. His putting too much thought into the simple gesture, but he can't seem to stop himself.

When he comes out of the bathroom, he could hear the three of them in the kitchen.Cougar is sitting at the small kitchen table. He's balanced on the back legs of his chair and watching the door to the hallway. The minute Jensen comes through the door Cougar's eyes are on him. It sends his heart pounding. He wonders if Cougar can feel his heart trying to beat its way out of his chest. Pooch is leaning over the stove stirring something that fills the whole room with the scent of chicken. Most of Jensen's attention is caught by Jolene. She's got a baby in her arms. It's got to be just over a month old. Just past the stage where they'd be all clenched up like a frog.

He drifts towards them without intending to. He can still remember when Lizzy was that tiny. Those first couple of months he'd spent with her curled up on his chest more often then she'd been in her crib. She'd been colicky and he'd been trying to get through the last year of High school. 

It's like taking a step back through time. He reaches for the little mite before he thinks better of it. He's already withdrawing his hands when Jolene pushes the little guy into his arms. "You'll keep an eye on Peter for me, won't you? I'd better make sure that Pooch isn't adding too much salt to the broth."

"I'm not gonna add to much salt to the broth, woman."

Cougar snorts. Obviously not worrying about being heard. Jensen wonders if that means Pooch is likely to add too much salt. Peter whimpers, drawing Jensen's attention back to where his tiny head is resting against his chest.


	3. Tell the Truth if you Dare

Jensen tucks Peter's head up under his chin and heads towards the table, and ends up staring at it for a second trying to figure out how to get seated without moving the baby. Thankfully, Cougar sees his difficulty. Shifting his weight forward Cougar brings his chair back down on all four feet with a thump. Then he uses his foot to shift one of the chairs away from the table.

Once Jensen and Peter are situated, Cougar goes back to balancing his chair on its back legs. Jolene comes over with four steaming cups of coffee hooked around her fingers. She sets the first two down, shoving each towards the two empty chairs. One that's taken care of she uses her free hand to unhook one of the mugs from her other hand. She holds that mug out to Jensen and the other one she hands to Cougar It takes a couple of tries before he figures out how to shift Peter over so that he can support his back and head with one arm. 

It makes him nervous to hold both a baby and a mug of hot liquid at the same time, but Jolene doesn't seem bothered. She goes back to haranguing Pooch about his seasoning, while digging through various cabinets. He takes a sip of the coffee. It's black and weaker than he'd prefer, but it still tastes like heaven. 

He's completely relaxed by the time Jolene puts a bowl of thick chicken noodle soup in front of him. A slice of buttered, thick crusted bread rests on the rim. "I'll take him, honey, you just go ahead and eat."

She picks Peter up before Jensen has a moment to react. He follows her with her eyes until she disappears down the hallway and takes a turn out of sight. He can hear her thumping up the stairs.

"Don't worry, she's just tucking him into bed. Now eat your soup." Pooch says. He puts two more bowls down on the table. One in front of Cougar and one across from Jensen. When he sees Jensen eyeing the empty spot, he continues. "Sometimes it takes a while to get Peter back to sleep when we put him down."

Right on cue, a thin cry can be heard from upstairs. 

"She'll get her own bowl of soup when she gets back down. The stove is still on low so it will stay warm. Just go ahead and eat. She won't be happy if you don't have that bowl emptied by the time she comes back."

Jensen goes back to staring at his bowl. He only starts eating once Cougar and Pooch did. Wade had never liked it when Jensen started eating before Wade did. He'd always said that Jensen ate so much there was never anything left.

That doesn't seem to be a problem here. After the first few spoonfuls of thick broth, Jensen realizes just how ravenous he is. The rest of the bowl practically levitates into his stomach. He uses the bread to mop up what little broth he can't get up with his spoon. When there is nothing left, he comes back to his senses. Hunching down in his chair, he tries to check how much Cougar and Pooch have eaten without being obvious about it. 

Pooch's bowl looks mostly full. His slice of bread has been crumbled up and floats on top of the soup. Cougar's bowl is a little emptier and it looks like he started with his bread, because there isn't any sign of it. Maybe Jensen didn't make too much of a fool of himself after all. 

He contemplates his coffee and tries to figure out if he needs to figure out some sort of small-talk now that he doesn't have any food left. Cougar takes care of the matter for him. He grabs Jensen's bowl and takes it to the oven. When he brings it back it's so full that Jensen half expects a lap full of broth. It doesn't happen, in fact Cougar doesn't so much as get a drop on the table. He's got to have some crazy reflexes.

He and Pooch go back to discussing some care they're working on. Neither of them even seems to be paying attention to if he's eating or not. Jensen is still careful to keep a slower pace when he eats the soup this time. It helps that the first bowl took the edge off his hunger.

Jolene comes back down, right when Jensen is considering whether or not he can as Cougar for a third bowl. He doesn't want to seem greedy. Jolene doesn't even bother to ask, before she picks up his bowl and takes it to the stove. When she comes back she's got two bowls. The one she puts in front of Jensen is half-full but there are two slices of buttered bread. Her bowl is the same.

She pats his shoulder before taking the seat next to him. She watches with a smirk as Pooch continues to gesticulate wildly in an attempt to get Cougar to give more than one word answers. "Don't let them intimidate you okay? I like to think that they understand not everyone is interested in engine talk." 

The second sentence is louder and obviously aimed at Pooch and Cougar. Pooch looks sheepish and turns to face Jolene's side of the table. Cougar just smirks. Jensen supposes he doesn't have much to worry about. He hadn't done much beyond replying to Pooch anyway. 

"Anyway, I wanted to ask. How did you get here? I checked outside but there wasn't any sign of a vehicle. If you need us to pick your car up somewhere, the boys are more than capable."

Jensen thinks about where he'd left the truck on the side of the road. He probably should have them tow it, but he doesn't know where to have them take it. Back to the gas-station maybe? That is, if Wade hasn’t reported the vehicle stolen. He should probably warn his soul-mates, in case the police come looking for him. "I kinda stole my boyfriend's truck. Don't have a current license either."

Jolene shares a look with Cougar that Jensen can't translate into anything useful. Hopefully it isn't anything bad. He's not sure what he'll do if they decide that he's too dangerous to have around Peter. 

Thankfully, the moment passes and Jolene goes back to smiling at him. It makes his own heart pound in his chest a little. Like back when he was a teenager and getting stupid crushes on the kids in his class. Can she feel what her smile is doing to him? Or does the feeling of having somebody else's heart beating in your chest get less pronounced after you have some time to adjust?

She reaches out to pat his hand. "Don't worry about it. There are plenty of precedence in soul-mate law that should protect you. Besides, I might be on maternity leave, but I'm still one of the county's top lawyers. Even if the police try to charge you for driving without a license I'm sure we can get them to reconsider." 

Jensen isn't as sure as she seems to be. He's vividly familiar with just how dangerous Wade can be when he wants something. Before he can figure out how to explain this, Jolene changes the subject again. 

"So what do you do for a living?"

That knocks all other thoughts straight out of his head. Jensen hasn't worked in two and a half years. The six months before that, he'd only been fixing whatever computers Wade's friends brought him. No way does he want to admit how much of a screw up he is. "I used to do a little bit of computer repair. I'm out of practice though. I've been busy." 

Jolene shares another look with Cougar. Jensen still can't figure out what they’re up to, but he has more important things to worry about. Like making sure they don't figure out how useless he really is.

The next question comes from Pooch. "How about family? Is there anybody you need to call?"  
Pulling out the picture of Jenny and Lizzy, he shows it to Pooch. When Pooch reaches for it, Jensen can't keep himself from jerking it away before Pooch's fingers even brush against it. This is his treasure. He's not going to let anybody touch it, even if his instincts say he can trust them.  
Pooch's chair scrapes against the tile floor as he scoots back from the table. Curling his shoulders forward he waits for Pooch to come around the table and grab him. Instead, he goes over to the wall and pulls a cordless phone off the cradle. 

He comes back over to the table and puts the phone down next to Jensen's half-eaten bowl of soup. "Why don't you go ahead and call them? Jolene's office is down the hallway to the right. You can talk to them in private while we clean up the kitchen."

Jensen stares at Pooch for a minute, trying to figure out the con. There doesn't seem to be one, though. Pooch holds Jensen's gaze without flinching. The sound of Cougar's chair scraping against the tile breaks their staring contest. Cougar jerks his chin for Pooch to head towards the sink, before grabbing Jensen's bowl and heading that way himself.

Jolene winks at him. "Go on now, I'll keep them out of trouble."


	4. Puppy Piles are Love

Jensen feels better after he talks to Jenny. It kind of feels like he's been hollowed out, but in a good way. He’s tried to stuff bits of himself down into a little box deep inside his mind. It seemed like the only way to survive Wade. Now that box has broken open and everything is tumbling out. 

He feels like curling up into a little ball and just letting everything pass him by. There is no way he can ignore the other hearts beating in his chest. Besides, Jenny wants to come meet his soul-mates and he promised he'd check with them and call her back in the morning. He won't be able to ask them if she can visit if he waits until they've all gone to bed before sneaking out of the office.

When he leaves the office it takes him a little while to find them. He has to follow the sound of their quiet talking down the hall, around the stairs, and to the left. Jolene, Pooch, and Cougar are all cuddled together on a large brown sectional in a homey living room. They've got a fire going in the large brick fireplace that takes up most of the far wall. The whole room is warm and dimly lit. 

He doesn't realize that Jolene has Peter pressed to her breast until he's all the way into the room. It feels odd to be standing across from them, when they're all pressed so close together. He twists the hem of his shirt between his hands. "My sister wants to come meet you, is that okay?"

"Of course, sweetie. Should we expect her for breakfast?"

"I didn't know the address and I wanted to make sure it was okay with you. I told her that I'd call her back in the morning."

"If you don't mind, I'd love to speak with her when you call her."

"I guess that's all right." He's only known Jolene for an hour and already he is terrified of what she and Jenny could do if they put their heads together. It's not like he can keep them from meeting. He doesn't want to try. Not when he's so close to seeing Jenny again.

Cougar gets up from the couch and comes over to wrap an arm around Jensen's waist. Pooch helps Jolene up so that she doesn't jostle Peter too much. The baby still whimpers a little but Jolene only has to smooth a hand through his hair to quiet him back down. "We're heading up to bed now, if that's all right with you."

"Yeah, do you have a blanket or something? I mean if it's not too much trouble." The couch is nice and deep, and long enough that Jensen should be able to stretch all the way out.   
"Oh no, we meant for you to come to bed with us." 

Jensen starts to shake. He's not ready for that.

Cougar curls his arm around him tighter. "Not what she meant. No sex. Just sleep. Better when we're all together."

Jolene shifts Peter until he's tucked securely in the crook of her arm. Then she places her newly free hand to Jensen's cheek. Without meaning to, Jensen feels the tension leak out of his neck and shoulders. "He's telling the truth. You can feel it can't you? The connection we have when we touch? I promise if you give us the chance you won't regret it."

Pooch leans his chin against on Jolene's shoulder. "If you aren't ready for that, it's fine. We'll get you some blankets and Cougar or I can stay down here with you."

That helps settle the last of Jensen's nerves. He doesn't want Cougar or Pooch to spend the night in a chair. If it doesn’t work out, he can always sneak back down after they fall asleep. 

They all climb the stairs in a group. Pooch helps Jolene to climb up first with Jensen and Cougar bringing up the tail. The bedroom is big, it looks like they knocked down a wall and turned two bedrooms into one. The bed is huge. It fills the room's back corner. A small netted crib is pulled up to the side that isn't butted up against the wall. Jolene tucks Peter into it, while Cougar and Pooch pull out a bunch of blankets out of the trunk at the foot of the bed. Cougar hands one of the blankets and a pair of sleeping pants to him before going over to help Jolene and Pooch get tucked in together. Leaving Jensen a little privacy to slip out of the cargo pants and get redressed.

Jensen doesn't know where things are going until Cougar comes back and guides him to lay down next to them, wrapping him up in a separate blanket. "This way you don't have to worry. Is safe." 

And he does feel safe, even before Cougar turns out the light and tucks himself against Jensen's back. Even with two layers of blankets between them he feels surrounded by safety. Their breathing mixes with the heartbeats in his chest and lulls him into a deep sleep. It's a world away from where he was this morning, and this is only the beginning.


End file.
